A Full Day

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that I awoke a little later than I had planned this morning. I was not, however, inclined to take a pass on my planned ride. After being stuck in hotels for the better part of two days, I was determined to get in a few miles of sightseeing, so I did a little quick calculation and figured I still had time for an hour's ride without getting me to my meeting too late. I could do without the usual danish and coffee anyway. The hotel is right next to Rock Creek, so I figured I'd drop down there and ride up the bike path for half an hour. I'm always surprised by this bike path because almost as soon as you're on it, you feel like you are way out in the country, despite the fact that it runs right through the District and up into Maryland. Most of the path is fairly narrow and covered with Fall leaves, but with the colorful foliage, babbling creek and overhanging trees, it was really quite relaxing and I wasn't too inclined to go fast on this unfamiliar ribbon of winding asphalt. So I got in a nice, but brief, ride and felt rather satisfied with it as I headed back over to the Hilton conference cave for a full day of sessions ranging from a nonstop two-hour NIH update to a session by one of the COGR guys that challenged me to stay awake. A lot of good information was gathered, a bit of useless information was discarded, and I finally made my way back to my little hotel room in a light drizzle to change into more casual attire for the evening's party with live music by the "Soul Source and the No-Cost Extensions." You have to be involved in research administration to find the humor in that name.

So yesterday the club officials officially decided to back out of a possible deal to set up a separately funded masters team within the NOBC. The idea came up on kind of short notice after a small group of riders was already well on its way to setting up a separate club for the same purpose, and it seemed there might be a possibility that we could incorporate it into the club as a sub-team and leverage the resources of both. I was a little worried about doing it from the outset, but I think it was worth a try. We had a meeting late last week with those involved to see get everyone on the same page, and, at least amoung the group there was fairly good agreement. Then the President sent an email around to the other officers explaining the proposal and it went over like the proverbial lead baloon. We had done something similar quite a few years ago and it kind of tore the club apart, so that history was there. The bottom line, though, which I think we already knew, was that there was just no way to pitch this so that it didn't cause some bad feelings and serious misgivings within the club. I expect that they will move ahead and set up as a separate club and we'll likely lose a couple of riders, but it wasn't worth the likely fallout to the club as a whole. Meanwhile, Amy is working on a new jersey for next season and Keith has secured an additional major sponsorship from Cox Communications.

Well, I've got to go put on my dancing shoes now ......